Professional services brands are built on reputation, relationships and intellectual capital. In such a competitive and fast-paced industry, social media, with its innate interactive and viral capabilities, can be a powerful tool for disseminating thought leadership and building meaningful connections with key audiences, including employees, clients, communities and the media.
In this post we highlight some of the best practices for leveraging social media to engage employees and recruits with a professional services brand.
Empowering Brand Ambassadors, Engaging Recruits
For professional services brands, employees represent the most significant communication channel to external audiences. Employees must feel a sense of shared purpose, a fundamental connection to the company’s mission, vision and values, and an understanding of how they contribute to the company’s success. Social media offers an ideal platform for engaging current employees as well as recruiting new ones.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, for example, uses multiple social channels to praise their employees while also promoting opportunities for prospective employees to apply.
Through the use of employee re-tweets, photos and spotlight pieces, firms can promote their employees as the faces of the brand, as Crowe Horwath does on Facebook.
Promoting Employee Volunteerism
To build interest and excitement in CSR activities, it’s vital to reach employees where they are most comfortable acquiring information. And for many, that means social networking sites. In particular, photos and video allow employees to see themselves, and their peers, as a vital part of CSR activities, encouraging pride and participation.
EisnerAmper, for example, uses Facebook as a way of promoting their CSR efforts. Five employees recently volunteered at a homeless shelter in New Jersey. EisnerAmper employees took photos at the shelter, which they were then able to share on their company Facebook page. By using this forum to share their programs, they’re able to not only encourage their employees to engage on Facebook, they’re also able to present themselves as philanthropic—a company that cares.
DLA Piper also posts images from their employee volunteerism initiatives on Facebook. Sharing through this channel aligns the good work with the corporate brand in a way that is both authentic and impactful.
Employees that have a strong bond and a clear understanding of the corporate brand can be a company’s most valuable brand ambassadors. Social media offers one touchpoint for communicating key messages to employees and recruits and generating enthusiasm and unity around the corporate brand.